Amy Wrobel is decorate with gold glitter while she sits at the commencement ceremony for the White Bear Lake High School class of 2013 at Aldrich arena in Maplewood, Friday June 7, 2013. (Pioneer Press: John Autey)

Minnesota’s high school graduation rate is the highest it has been in at least a decade, with all student groups showing gains in 2013.

Data released Wednesday by the Minnesota Department of Education show 79.5 percent of high school seniors received diplomas last year, up from 77.5 percent the year before. Black and Hispanic students posted some of the largest gains among racial subgroups as well as students learning English and those who live in poverty.

“To see this kind of growth in just one year is remarkable,” Brenda Cassellius, state education commissioner, said during a Capitol news conference. “We just are so proud of our school districts, we’re proud of our teachers and our principals who are paying attention to every single kid.”

Despite the gains, a gap remains between the number of white students earning a diploma and their minority peers. That gap has closed in the past three years with black and Hispanic students making the most progress, improving their graduation rates more than 10 percentage points since 2010.

Yet the difference between white and minority students remains stark. The white student graduation rate is 85 percent, while the rate for most minority students is less than 60 percent; Asian students are the exception with a graduation rate of 78 percent.

In St. Paul schools, 73 percent of seniors earned diplomas and most student subgroups improved their graduation rates in 2013. Student subgroups were split when compared with state averages.

St. Paul’s American Indian, Hispanic, black, English learners and students in poverty all scored above the state average. However, Asian, white and special-education students scored below the state average.

Matthew Mohs, the district’s chief academic officer, attributed the gains to the district’s intense focus on providing every student with equal education opportunities. Going forward, the district plans to continue that push while working to ensure students are college- and career-ready.

“We are really honing in on a lot of the obstacles that students encounter that lead them to delay graduation or never graduate at all,” Mohs said.

Statewide, the gains come a year after the DFL-led Legislature eliminated the Graduation Required Assessment for Diploma, or GRAD, that students had to pass in reading, writing and math. Cassellius said she didn’t believe the loss of those requirements boosted graduation rates, but Republican lawmakers, school-reform advocates and business leaders who supported the tests weren’t so sure.

Joe Nathan, executive director of the Center for School Change, said school leaders he has spoken with across the state said eliminating the tests had a direct impact on their graduation rates.

“One of the reasons the graduation rate went up is that the standards went down,” Nathan said.

Business leaders and Republicans added that the increased graduation rate is proof that higher standards such the GRAD were successful.

State Rep. Kelby Woodard, R-Belle Plaine, said Minnesota students’ academic success is the result of a decade of bipartisan work to improve school standards and accountability.

Recent moves by Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers to lower those standards endanger that success, he said. “I think it takes us in the opposite direction,” Woodard said.

Cassellius disagreed, saying new investments by lawmakers and new accountability measures in the state’s improved way of grading schools are giving educators information essential to helping them close the achievement gap between white and minority students.

“What we are here to say is we are making progress,” Cassellius said, noting the state’s goal of a 90 percent graduation rate by 2020. “If we keep it up, this is doable.”

Cassellius also said part of the growth can be attributed to the state Education Department counting more students. In past years, districts had to have at least 40 students in a specific subgroup in order to report that group’s results. This year, the threshold has been lowered to 10 students, broadening the pool of students who are counted.

Office of Higher Education Commissioner Larry Pogemiller and Katie Clark Sieben, commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development, also celebrated the gains. Increased graduation rates are good for the state’s economic future, they said.

“Minnesota has one of the most highly educated workforces in the country, and today’s announcement of record-high graduation rates among our high school students reinforces the longevity of our state’s greatest asset, our talent,” Sieben said. “Behind every positive economic indicator in Minnesota is our workforce. It’s the driving force of our success story.”

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